The Ancients' Lazarus
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: What if Shadow didn't agree to Eggman's plans in 'It Takes a Village' to begin with? What if something else led him to go along with the doc? What if… what if that something was Maria's revival through the Ancients' technology? [3-part midquel to Boom ep. 52][Read &Review]
1. So Close

"No!" Shadow shouted as he slammed his fist into the computer console. "How could it fail again?!"

The hedgehog grumbled as he went through the computer's programs again to see what had gone wrong this time. This should have worked this time; this was going to be the one time that it was going to work for real. Several months ago, Shadow had found an old laboratory that the Ancients used for something similar to life longevity, or maybe even resurrection. And for months, he had worked tirelessly to use that very technology to bring back something he had lost years and years ago.

Shadow typed up a command in the console and a message flashed back at him. After reading it, Shadow nearly hit it again. "Batteries? It needs batteries?! What kind of stupid Ancient technology needs batteries?! Stupid son of a-"

"Special delivery for a Mister Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Wait, what?

Shadow turned from the console to look down at a yellow cube-like robot who held out an envelope for Shadow to take. The hedgehog didn't take the envelope and went back to the console.

"Buzz off." he told the robot tonelessly. "Go take that envelope and shove it up your gears, I'm doing something important that can't be done unsupervised."

"I was told by Doctor Eggman that I give this to you whether you reject it or not." the robot then informed Shadow, shoving the envelope even closer to the hedgehog. For some reason, it smelled like someone had dumped a bottle of vanilla perfume all over it. It made Shadow sick.

"Please dude, just take the thing." the robot told Shadow. "Eggman's gonna get mad and think I didn't give it to you if you don't take it now. He might even scrap me if he's in a bad mood (he really likes you, you know)."

"Good." Shadow hissed as he snatched the envelope from the robot. "Now go away."

"Yessir!" the robot agreed with a salute before quickly going away. Shadow rolled his eyes before looking down at the envelope with a measure of disgust. The perfume was giving him a headache now, and it had been sealed with an embossed logo of some quack with a mega ego. Curious for a second, Shadow opened the envelope and skimmed over the contents of the letter inside.

' _I, Ivo Robotnik, formally known as Doctor Eggman, do hereby ask of you, Shadow the Hedgehog, to attend a meeting on…_ '

With a grimace, Shadow crumbled up the invitation and tossed it over his shoulder before going back to the console. He had heard about that doctor for some time and he wanted nothing to do with him at all. Rumor had it that he kept being beat by a stupid blue hedgehog that Shadow had met before and no longer wanted to do business with. The old man must have been running out of ideas if he had to resort to trying to reach Shadow- who had done all in his power to stay as silent and out of the way as possible after discovering the Ancients' technology.

Behind the console, a capsule with a sickly, translucent fluid started to glow. The fluid slowly started to pulsate as a figure was just barely able to be seen through it. Shadow only happened to look up at this time and when he saw the figure within the fluid, his pupils shrunk in horrified astonishment. Without thinking, Shadow rushed to the capsule and placed his hands against the glass that separated him from the creature on the inside.

"Y-you're alive…?" he questioned through the glass. "I-it's working?!"

Shadow looked over the capsule as if he had only imagined the movement from inside, but deep down he knew that he didn't. Without warning, a hand slapped against the glass from inside the capsule. To any lesser being, they were have jumped back in surprise or shock, but Shadow remained where he was to stare at the hand as if it were nothing more than a little fly that decided to land there.

"I won't give up." Shadow then proclaimed before hitting his fist against the glass. "Not when we could be so close..."

Suddenly, Shadow was hit with an idea as he turned to look back at the crumbled up invitation on the ground.

"Robotnik..."

Shadow walked over to the tossed invitation and read it over. Apparently this… Eggman wanted to capture a common enemy? A stupid little blue blur that couldn't mind his own business needed to be stopped once and for all, right? Too bad Shadow didn't care about that pest at the moment. Reading more, Shadow found that Eggman wanted them to meet at his liar that Saturday around seven in the morning. It seemed kind of early, but it was going to be at Eggman's liar so it became almost a better deal for Shadow.

"Do you really think he'll have what we need?" Shadow asked as he turned to the capsule. The hand was no longer on the glass, and the fluid had stopped pulsating. It was almost as if the display from earlier had only been a dream, brought on by Shadow's own will to cheat death.

"I'll go." Shadow decided as he looked back down at the invitation. "But don't think for one moment that I'll enjoy it! In and out, that's all I want. I'll be back soon as I can Maria- promise."


	2. Imbeciles

_So this was why he invited me; that blue bug had amassed a small cult of enemies since I last saw him. If this wasn't for her, so help me I wouldn't be here at all. Was this a meeting for an improv club or was it a meeting to destroy Sonic?_

 _This needs to end now; and so help me if an opportunity doesn't rise soon, I'll make one!_

"And so, with my leadership and your blind loyalty, we can finally get rid of those meddling muskrats." Eggman declared before turning to Shadow. The rest of the room followed suit, looking toward Shadow as if he was going to announce some ground breaking discovery. What he gave them was a blank stare and an unamused eyebrow raise.

What did they want, a cheer leading squad that consisted of only Shadow or something?

"Hey, how come you're leading the shots?" one of the morons that attending the meeting questioned. Not one that Shadow recognized at the most. "I'm the best villain here, I've spent more time in the pin than all of you combined!"

"All that proves is that you're the best at getting caught." some dolt in a mechanical suit spat back with a smirk.

"What we need is an educated fellow," another moron with some kind of circus getup suggested to the mechanical suit dolt. "An organized leader who knows how to keep hot heads like _you_ under control and can maintain parliamentary procedures."

Oh, you mean like Shadow?

"Objection!" a guy dressed up as a tree declared. "Anyone can learn parliamentary procedures."

"Point of order," the circus idiot then decreed, "'Objection' is court room terminology, not parliamentary."

"Sustained!" the tree-furry once again declared.

"As anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the sci-fi classic Battle Force Galaxia knows," some kid with a nasally voice then said, "Our leader should be a young, inexperienced teenager who's destined for glory, least you want to repeat Admiral Glork's mistakes..."

Wow, that kind of sounds like Shadow too!

"You're losing focus!" Eggman then shouted, "Remember, _I'm_ the one who called this meeting!"

Shadow looked at the doctor before the room started to argue over who should be in charge. In midst of this chaos, that dumb doctor came up with an idea.

Team building exercises- one of which took the form as the overly used 'trust-fall' thing. Everyone was assigned a partner, with Doctor Eggman being paired with Shadow for some reason. As all the other partner successfully caught their partner, while Shadow simply stared as Eggman fell over on his back. He jumped right back up and blamed himself for Shadow's negligence to go along with the exercise.

 _Seriously Maria, how is this imbecile even related to you? Let me take note to never let him know you're alive, got it? I won't tolerate being with this idiot long enough- even with you around._

. . .

Later on, Doctor Eggman attempted to play a little game he had done some time when he wasn't a complete waste of space. The rules were simple enough, pretend to toss an imaginary ball while saying some nonsense word that had nothing to do with what they were doing. Naturally, Shadow did nothing. They were not going to make him play this game, he needed to get to Eggman's library, if anything. It was only a matter of time before the doc gave Shadow exactly the opportunity he needed to raid Eggman's fortress for the parts he needed for the Ancients' machine.

"We're making history here!" Eggman pleaded as Shadow started to make his leave. "A collection of villains like this has never been assembled before!"

 _And I want my friend back, so who's going to lose here?_

"I see no villains." Shadow told the doctor in a low tone, "Just some fools whose only ability is wasting time!"

"That's something, isn't it?" Eggman nervously chuckled.

"No. Not really." Shadow spat before utilizing Chaos Control to teleport out of the room and out of Eggman's sight. He didn't care what happened next to the sad group after landing inside of Eggman's rarely used library. Anything Shadow could find on the Ancients would be good enough.

A book on quantum physics? Sure, that might come in handy too.

Once he had what he needed, Shadow once again utilized Chaos Control to teleport back to the Ancient ruin where the resurrection was taking place. From there, Shadow looked over the books at the computer console and input more codes that theoretically would work. Once sure that he could do all that he could at the console, Shadow walked over to the capsule. He watched as the fluid started to glow again, this time it was a bit more brighter than the last. The fluid remained illuminated as Shadow carefully leaned against the glass waiting for a sign -any sign- that this time it really was going to work.

Before anything could happen, a sudden explosion directed Shadow's attention upwards. He looked at it and growled.

If that battle got any closer…

Without looking back at the capsule, Shadow left the area, going to help Eggman crush Sonic or whatever before they brought it to him. What he didn't see was the illuminated fluid start to thin out as the figure inside slowly lowered as the fluid melted away.

What he didn't see was his friend's resurrection.


	3. Pas de Deux

Shadow watched from a distance as the battle unfolded, and for a moment, he was almost impressed that the villains' plan was working. But then Sonic got an idea that involved some odd structure that Shadow could have called modern art without taste- he only knew it was supposed to be a bookcase because he had seen an advert for it in some spam he happened to get out in the ruins. From there, the battle turned back into Sonic's favor to the point he could have Eggman on his knees; that was when Shadow decided to take some action and knocked Sonic off and away from Eggman.

"Pathetic." Shadow muttered as he gave a nasty glare to the mad doc. "Even with _all_ this help, you still couldn't defeat Sonic."

With that, Shadow and Sonic went into a one on one battle that was both equal and opposite. Doctor Eggman tried to get close to the battle, to watch them like a circus show, to which Shadow knocked the doctor's carrier out of the way before going back into battle with Sonic.

It still didn't stop that moron.

Shadow only stopped attacking Sonic to look at Eggman. "Get out of the way you buffoon." the black hedgehog demanded, allowing time for Sonic to hit him. Shadow crashed through some house, but he walked off the pain to start back again. He took Sonic up by his scarf then used enough velocity to send the two flying in the air; Sonic was able to get a hold again before the two started to plummet back down to the earth, causing Shadow to land into the horribly built bookcase.

"Hey!" Sonic said, almost sounding upset, "We worked all day on that!"

"Your shoddy craftsmanship brings shame on all hedgehog kind." Shadow smirked. "And for that, you shall perish..."

In a flash, Shadow disappeared from the spot and reemerged to punch Sonic into the air before he could even react. Another flash and Shadow kicked the blue pest back to the ground, leaving nothing more than a large impact mark from Sonic's fall. Of course, Doctor Eggman had to ruin it all.

After muttering something about victory, the doc attempted to take of picture of the two, forgetting that he had left the flash on. The flash blinded Shadow for long enough that Sonic was able to make a come back attack.

"You fool!" Shadow hissed at Doctor Eggman with anger. "I had him just where I wanted him!"

"Sorry!" Doctor Eggman replied in a tone that almost wasn't apologetic at all, "That one's on me Shadow. Forgot to turn off the flash… The pic looks great though if it's any consolation!"

"Enough!" Shadow declared, "How's a guy supposed to destroy his foes with dolts like you wandering around?!" and with an unnerved eye roll, Shadow turned to Sonic. "We'll meet again soon Sonic," Shadow promised, "But next time, on _my_ terms."

Leaving on that note, Shadow teleported out of the village and back to the ruins. Whatever pain he felt from the battle he simply shook off.

Maria was never going to associate with that moron when she finally woke up. Ever.

With a yawn from a good fight that didn't quite go in his favor, Shadow cracked his knuckles as he went to the computer console to get out the codes once again. Everything seemed to be fine, maybe even better than fine.

Near the console, a type of Ancient music player he happened to dig up was playing the Nutcracker suite; the song in particular being the _Waltz of the Snowflakes_. She really liked that piece- once saying that it described what it felt in her illness quite well. She also liked the _Pas de Deux, a. Intrada_ too for the way it sounded so calming yet a bit bittersweet; just like their relationship, she said, just what's it's like to be the friend of someone so stoic and almost uncaring as Shadow.

Wait a minute, there wasn't music playing when he left earlier.

Shadow looked over the side of the console and nearly felt his jaw drop to the floor.

The capsule…

It…

It was…

It was empty!

Shadow shook his head, almost refusing the believe it. But as he walked over to the capsule he found that it was more than reality. The capsule was completely emptied with the glass down to let what was once in now out.

It worked.

That stupid old thing worked!

Now he had another problem. That machine had worked, but what did it do with the creature that was once inside? Slowly, as Shadow thought this over his face started to grow more pale. There was now a wild Maria on the loose, and although she could do no harm, what would others do when they found out she was related to Doctor Eggman? Forcing himself to move, Shadow quickly started to follow the little trail of still wet footprints from the fluid that helped to resurrect Maria.

He didn't even want to think about what would happen if she crossed paths with Sonic…

. . .

 **And that's how Maria should be introduced into the Sonic Boom franchise cuz no one said that if the right technology existed, they couldn't just go and bring her back. And if the Ancients are capable of time travel, then let's have them have the technology to resurrect the dead. Yes? Good.**

 **Since the Sonic Boom series is essentially an AU of the main continuity (nor will it ever be serious enough to handle an A.R.K. episode, I'm sure), we're going to say that Shadow obtained her body (or, a good sample of her DNA) around the same time he did whatever it is he did to get to Bygone Island. She's not a clone, more of a Maria pulled before the fatality (hinted with Shadow snagging a book on quantum physics, which, according to Bioshock Infinite and Undertale, is what holds the secrets to time travel and messing around with the universe). The real question here is if Maria will remember being dead; and just like the sequel to 'For Archives Only', I'll get to it... eventually... maybe. But just between you and me, I think that fluid the Ancients had has more than something to do with it. Where _did_ he get that...?**

 **(Also, if you want to take Maria in account for Shadow's behavior in the Boom series, consider her death as the reason why he was berating Sonic for relying on his friends in Rise of Lyric, which makes the topic of Maria more interesting.)**


End file.
